Contents

Goodwin was born in Memphis, Tennessee.[2] Her mother, Linda (née Kantor), is a former educator and "stay-at-home mom" who later worked for FedEx and Apple.[3] Her father, Tim Goodwin, formerly owned and operated a recording studio.[4] Goodwin changed her name from "Jennifer" to "Ginnifer" to distinguish her name, and to assist in pronunciation of her name in her regional dialect.[5] Her younger sister, Melissa Goodwin, is a stop motion animator on shows such as Robot Chicken, on which Ginnifer has also appeared as voice talent.

In 2008, Max Mara honored Goodwin with a "Face of the Future" award, an award recognizing up and coming women in film.[10] Also, Goodwin was one of the celebrities featured in Gap's Fall 2008 ad campaign.[11]

Goodwin starred as Gigi in He's Just Not That into You, which was released in February 2009. For this role, she received a nomination for the People's Choice Award for Breakout Movie Actress.[12] In April 2009 she began filming Ramona and Beezus (playing "Aunt Bea").[13]

Since 2011, Goodwin has played a leading role in the ABC fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time. She plays both the fairy tale heroine Snow White and her real world counterpart, schoolteacher Mary Margaret Blanchard.[14]

Goodwin dated actor Chris Klein for two years before breaking up in 2008.[16] She later started dating actor Joey Kern and they became engaged in December 2010.[17] They ended the engagement in May 2011.[18] Goodwin subsequently began dating her Once Upon a Time co-star Josh Dallas in fall 2011.[19] Goodwin and Dallas became engaged in October 2013,[20] and married on April 12, 2014 in California.[21] They have one child, a son, born in May 2014.[22]

Goodwin was a vegan and was a spokesperson for Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-A-Turkey Project in 2009, having adopted a whole flock herself.[25] She revealed on Jimmy Kimmel that she gave up being a vegan after experiencing undisclosed health issues. She said: "I'm always learning and growing and changing and there were some boring health issues, and so I did actually have to work some animal products back into my diet."[26] Goodwin says although she's never had a "dramatic weight problem", she uses Weight Watchers to keep her indulgences in check.[27] She considers herself an extremely healthy person,[28] and balances her diet with ballet classes and cardio workouts.[27]

In 2013, Goodwin said that, after she left Memphis, she "...up and left Judaism for a very long time," and that, "For 10 years, there was nothing. No ritual. No tradition. No community." She later reconnected with her faith, and has said, "I was a Jew by birth, and now I'm a Jew by choice."[6]